The Mission to Seafarers' Cycling for Seafarers campaign kicks off on June 25, Day of the Seafarer. Raising awareness and funds that assist the work of the Mission, the two-month-long event is a chance for the local maritime industry to show their support for seafarers who have faced incredible challenges during the pandemic. While adhering to COVID-19 rules, riders are able to share their accomplishments on Strava as well as the Mission's Facebook and Twitter pages. To register, visit www.flyingangel.ca.

Maersk and Canadian Pacific have announced the construction of a new facility in Vancouver in the next months, connecting the Port of Vancouver via rail or truck directly with the warehouse. The new 10,870m² facility will have 103 doors and is scheduled to open on 1 September.  Designed to make PNW supply chains more resilient, flexible and cost-effective, the new facility will add needed cross-dock capacity at a time of supply chain strain. It is designed to leverage the use of Canadian Pacific rail service direct from the port as a lower carbon emission choice than multiple trucks in the port complex and on local roads.

Albion Marine is working with the South Asian community to preserve the historical artifact Sea Lion Tugboat, the oldest tugboat in British Columbia, built-in 1905. Sea Lion Tugboat is one of a kind, with a long history -- she was hired to escort the Komagata Maru out of Burrard Inlet, sending 376 East Indian Migrants back to an uncertain future. It is a historical artifact for the South Asian community across Canada, specifically in British Columbia, demonstrating the valuable contributions of South Asian Canadians in British Columbia to Canada's economics, history, and culture.

Green Marine held its 2021 annual general meeting on Wednesday, June 9, electing Isabelle Brassard, Senior Vice-President, Logistics and Sustainable Development at Fednav Limited. With her international experience at Rio Tinto, notably as Global Vice President, Marine and Logistics, which is the position she held in Singapore prior to joining Fednav last fall. Both Cliff Stewart, the Vice President - Infrastructure at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, and Michael Fratianni, the President and CEO of Montréal Gateway Terminals Partnership, were elected to a second term. Mr. Fratianni will continue lead the board as chair, backed by Mark Barker, the President of Interlake Steamship Company, as vice-chair, and by Brandy Christian, the President and CEO of the Port of New Orleans, as treasurer.

The dockers union at the Port of Long Beach has sounded a warning at news of Total Terminals International's (TTI) plan to automate its 385-acre Pier T, reports IHS Media. The union opposes the project on the grounds it will eliminate jobs, but employers say automation is needed to keep the port competitive. TTI would become the fourth automated terminal in southern California. Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) and TraPac in Los Angeles are fully automated, meaning all cargo-handling functions in the container yards - but not ship-to-shore cranes - are conducted with driverless equipment.

A new study from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration highlights the importance of American shipyards, noting that they support $42.4 billion in gross domestic product. The Economic Importance of the U.S. Private Shipbuilding and Repairing Industry measures the economic importance of the shipbuilding and repair industry at the national and state levels for calendar year 2019. In 2019, the nation’s 154 private shipyards directly provided more than 107,000 jobs and contributed $9.9 billion in labor income to the national economy. On a nationwide basis— including direct, indirect, and induced impacts—the industry supported 393,390 jobs, $28.1 billion of labor income, and $42.4 billion in GDP. Download the full report here.

Retailers throughout the U.S. have been grappling with supply chain backlogs, high freight costs and heightened demand for imports, so much so that Home Depot, the third largest U.S. importer by volume of containers, has come up with their own solution. The largest home improvement retailer in the U.S. has chartered in a boxship to move its own goods. In reporting the news, Splash247.com noted that retail sales across the US are expected to grow between 10.5% and 13.5% to an estimated total of $4.44trn to $4.56trn in 2021. That compares with $4.02trn in total retail sales in 2020 and $3.76trn in 2019.

The Port of Los Angeles  became the first port in the Western Hemisphere to process 10 million container units in a 12‑month period. The 10-millionth container was loaded on the CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci. When the Port of Los Angeles closes its 2020-2021 Fiscal Year books on June 30, it is expected to have processed more than 10.8 million TEUs. A pandemic-induced consumer buying surge that began last summer, along with restocking of retailer shelves and e-commerce warehouses across the country have fueled the dramatic rise in imports. Over the past 12 months, port terminals have worked an average of 15 container ships each day, up from a pre-pandemic average of 10 ships a day, representing a significant increase in productivity. Longshore labor shifts are up nearly 20% in 2021 compared to the average weekly shift count over the past four years.

The shipping industry is urging governments to approve the proposed amendments to Annex 6 of MARPOL at MEPC 77 in November as the first concrete step forward in making the International Maritime Research Board to a much-needed reality to reduce GHG emissions from shipping. The USD 5 billion R&D program, funded by a USD 2 per tonne levy of fuel consumed, is designed to accelerate the development and introduction of zero-emission technologies and fuels for maritime transport with IMO oversight are vital for to decarbonizing the industry.

Evergreen Marine Corporation is piloting the usage of Internet of Things (IoT) technology with Kaohsiung Port's customs officials. Both sides are aiming to see how IoT technology can ensure the safety of moving cargoes and monitor the entire process of point-to-point container movements in Taiwan's busiest container port. IoT technology will be used to capture the information of container trucks passing through the automated lanes and transmit the information to the customs officers in real time, with a view to effectively improving customs supervision efficiency. Source: www.container-news.com.

The Panama Canal Authority announced this week (15 June) that it has increased the maximum allowable length for vessels transiting the Neopanamax Locks. The maximum length overall (LOA) for commercial and non-commercial vessels acceptable for regular transits of the Neopanamax Locks is now 370.33 meters (1,215 feet), up from 367.28 meters (1,205 feet). The increase means that 96.8% of the world’s fleet of containerships can now transit the Panama Canal. In addition to this increased length overall, the Canal has also announced that it is now offering 15.24 meters (50 feet) draft, citing increased rainfall and successful water management at the Gatun Lake which have kept the draft at 14.93 meters (49 feet) since April 2021.

Hundreds of missed vessel calls through the first half of June are leaving a growing backlog of loaded containers at Yantian International Container Terminals (YICT) that will take weeks to clear. According to data from project44, 298 container ships with a combined capacity of over 3 million TEU skipped Yantian between June 1 and June 15, a 300 percent increase in blank sailings compared with the first two weeks of May. Estimates from industry analysts put the number of export containers waiting to be loaded by carriers in the Shenzhen terminals at 300,000 TEU. Source: JOC.com

DNV has launched the EEXI Calculator – a new digital self-service tool to support customers in ensuring their compliance with the upcoming Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI), a medium-term component of the IMO roadmap towards reducing global shipping’s carbon intensity  over the next decade, due to take effect in 2023. The aim of the EEXI is to assess the energy efficiency of existing ships, focusing solely on their design. It determines the standardized CO2 emissions related to a vessel’s installed engine power, transport capacity, speed, and degree of energy efficiency.

The International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meetings wrapped up on June 17 after a week-long session. MEPC 76 addressed the shipping industry's goals of achieving the IMO's Initial Strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships by half by 2050, based on 2008 levels.  The IMO meeting summary notes that the MEPC agreed to ban the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) by ships in Arctic waters on and after July 1, 2024, adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex VI that will combine technical and operational approaches to improve the energy efficiency on ships, and added controls on the use of biocide cybutryne in Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships. Future work includes further discussion on a fuel levy and the proposed International Maritime Research Board.

A new comprehensive ecotoxicity study by the Danish Hydraulics Institute (DHI) shows that Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (ECGS) do not harm the marine environment. DHI, an independent, international research organization headquartered in Denmark that has special competence in the fields of water, environment and health, took discharge water  from four ships operating in northern Europe with open loop scrubbers. The samples were homogenized and presented to different levels of marine organisms including algae & crustaceans in a step-wise process, culminating in testing the toxicity with fish. The final step in the risk assessment is the translation of the data to the real-life situations of several scrubbers discharging into a port or into a busy sea lane. In all cases, the risk of ecotoxicity was well below the unacceptable level. A copy of the study can be downloaded here.

Classification Society ClassNK has granted an Approval in Principle (AiP) based on its Rule Part GF (regulation for ships using low-flashpoint fuels) incorporating “International Code of Safety for Ships using Gases or other Low-flashpoint Fuels (IGF Code) to Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. for their concept design of an LNG-fueled bulker Kamsarmax GF. This eco-ship combines the versatility of Kamsarmax with the high environmental performance of LNG fuel. Designed to use LNG as its primary fuel, it has achieved a reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40% or more compared to the EEDI reference line and meet the reduction rate by a large margin for EEDI Phase 3 that will take effect in 2025. In addition, sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) have also been greatly reduced.

Meeting at Carbis Bay, England this past week, the Group of Seven leaders announced the Build Back Better World Initiative (B3W) -- a transparent infrastructure partnership that will seek to address the estimated $40 trillion funding required by developing nations by 2035. The G7 and its allies will use the B3W initiative to mobilize private-sector capital in areas such as climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality. It was not immediately clear how exactly the plan would work or how much capital it would ultimately allocate. The move is in part a response to China's growing influence throughout the developing world.

The International Chamber of Shipping has updated their Guide to Helicopter/Ship Operations. This fifth edition of the Guide, written for shipping companies, ships' crews and helicopter operators provides standardized procedures and facilities for helicopter/ship operations worldwide and encourages safe and efficient performance in the field. New to this edition is updated guidance on transferring marine pilots directly to the bridge wing by winch, including associated risk assessments; a detailed list of abbreviations and definitions from the maritime and aviation industry; expanded information on the requirements specific to different ship types and revised layout and checklists to better reflect human factors. Click here for information on obtaining a copy.

On June 13, the Royal Canadian Navy announced the return of HMCS Corner Brook to duty. Purchased by the Federal Government in 1998 from the U.K., the return signals an end to years of complications, starting in 2011 when the sub ran aground 45 metres below the surface in Nootka Sound. In 2019, close to the end of modernization work being undertaken by Babcock Canada, fire broke out, delaying the completion of her Extended Docking Work Period (EDWP), and then in March 2020, a pressure test on the ballast tanks led to a rupture. Overall, the sub has had 47 separate equipment upgrades, including a new communication mast to allow high-speed and secure satellite communications, and equipment to allow it to fire modernized torpedoes. The Victoria class submarine is 230 feet/11 inches (70.26 m) long and 24 feet/11 inches (7.6 m) wide with a draught of 18 feet/1 inch (5.5 m). She is powered by a diesel-electric system and is capable of a maximum speed of 12 knots on the surface and 20 knots when submerged. The lift barge Seaspan Careen transported her from Esquimalt Graving Dock to Ogden Point for the final stage of the undocking process.